Alone Together

8: The Floor Beneath His

"What a peculiar day!" Ryou said as he carried his groceries towards the stairwell. He carried the handle of his umbrella like a phone; between his ear and his shoulder.
"Tripped down the stairs...grabbed by the arse...what's next?"

He pulled his groceries and made his way up the stairs with his arms beginning to get a little sore.

Ryou lived on the seventh floor, so the stairs were quite a hustle. However, as he neared the door of the sixth, he could hear a faint thud.

He frowned at himself as he reached for the doorknob. "I will not pry into someone's business." Scolding himself, he picked up his grocery bags.
Well, when he heard some crying too, his curiosity got the best of him. "Let's hope that cat doesn't get murdered..."

Carefully and as quietly as possible, he turned the knob and peered into the hallway of the sixth floor.

The only difference of this hallway was the positioning of the doors, so it wasn't too different to the seventh floor's hall. The floor wasn't as clean, though. It seemed somewhat dustier.

It was also creepy. It was as if no one even lived on the sixth floor.

Ryou shuddered at the thought that a ghost or a spirit of some sort was the source of the crying and the banging. It was almost enough to get him to turn around and leave. After all, this was the kind of place that a horror movie would start. Ryou would rather not be murdered, nor have his soul eaten or something.

It seemed too absurd for him to leave, though. Instead he looked around, and left his groceries by the door. "Hello? Is someone there?" He called out, and got the chills to hear his voice echo.

Suddenly the crying stopped. So did the banging. And Ryou's heart felt like it stopped too.

The end of the hall. Someone was at the end. Not in their apartment, but in the hall. Meaning Ryou wasn't alone.

Then, Ryou saw him.

There was a person sitting against a door, his knees pulled tight to his chest. Tears were streaked down his face, and Ryou gasped.

Catching sight of him, the person said, "Go the fuck away. If you meant to ditch me, stick to it, and don't show your fuckin' face to me again."

Ryou gaped at him. "You're..." He said, somewhat angry, relieved, and shocked all at once, just to see him. "You're him! You...you groped me! In public! Without my consent!"

Melvin's eyes widened. "Creampuff...?"

Ryou approached him for a better look. Melvin—already wiping his face with the back of his hand—was drenched in rain, his arms in between his legs and his chest. He was trying to hide that he was shivering. 

Ryou wrinkled his nose, the smell of weed and alcohol wafting off of him. "Have you been drinking?"

"No." Melvin turned away, hiding his face, lowering his voice, which still was trying to choke him. He decided he didn't want to see Ryou—well, he didn't want Ryou to see this side of him. He didn't trust him like that. "I only had a shot."

Ryou looked at him, then to his door. "You were crying."

"I was not." His shot him a death glare. "It's raining. My face is wet."